Sporadic RTW Dispatch #4
Australia

by

Saying goodbye to Asia was not easy, but
it was Friday, October 13th, 1995 and we had places to go, people to
meet, and things to see. As an introduction to Oz, we were safely
seated in the middle of an A300 next to Tom and Val, who were returning
from their stay on Java and Bali. The men got the aisle seats and the
women sat in the center wasting no time getting acquainted.

There were many travel stories to share and
much more to talk about after Karin found out that Tom was from the
Netherlands and had lived in Bandung as a boy. Before we knew it, the
plane had landed and it was time to say goodbye to our new friends, but
not before they invited us to stay with them when we arrived in Cairns.

Darwin

We were surprised to find that clearing
immigration and customs went a lot smoother than others said it would,
but after reaching the immigration counter we were convinced that they
use directional microphones. We had a real sense of deja vu when the
questions the officer asked seemed to be based on a conversation we had
while waiting in line. We were on our way with a smile and stamps of
approval and acceptance.

Having arrived at 2:30am, we were not sure
exactly how we would manage to find a place to rest our heads, but found
the visitor information counter and a friendly clerk. It did not take
long for us to secure reservations at a hostel and get on the 4:00am
shuttle into town. There was no traffic on the roads at this time of the
morning, and we would soon find out that it was not much different
during the day.

At the hostel, we snuck into our dormbeds
without disturbing our roommates and sunk into a deep sleep. We awoke
to tummy aches and a mean case of Bali belly, which went on for two
days. After recovering, we took advantage of the first washing machine
we had seen in months. In Asia, we were washing our clothes by hand and
they had taken on a distinctive dingy look, which could only be removed
by machine. It was nice to have white socks again, and even nicer to
give our hands a break from the chore.

We had started getting used to being around
Westerners in Bali, but were real depressed upon arrival in Darwin. You
might call it a reverse culture shock. It was like waking up in the
middle of a good dream and wanting to go back to sleep. After spending
so little in Asia, prices in Australia shocked us, so we had to rush to
the supermarket and start cooking for ourselves.

It took us a while to get used to the
liberal styles of dress and behavior and the sound of English all the
time, especially with the Aussie accent. After a week, we resigned
ourselves to the next three months, and decided to make the best of
things. Receiving a package and letter from home made things a little
better, and the hot showers and potable tap water were other comforts we
appreciated.

Darwin is doing pretty well since a cyclone
flattened it on Christmas Day in 1974. The weather was very warm and
humid. This is one of the six seasons that the Aborigines call
Gunumeleng, a transition to monsoon weather. We saw Aborigines
in town, but did not have an opportunity to speak with them.

Since Australia is the land of the great
Outback, we signed up for three days in Kakadu National Park on a
coaster bus with seventeen others. Not fifteen minutes out of the city,
our driver, who thought he was Crocodile Dundee, jumps out of the bus,
runs into the bush, and starts shaking a tree. Out falls a frill-necked
lizard which he catches and holds up, mouth open and frill flared, for
our first show and tell. Then it was off to see the 3m-tall (9 ft),
2m-diameter (6 ft) termite mounds made of mud, constructed for optimal
natural ventilation and thermal control.

After a short swim in the 'croc-free'
Annaburroo Billabong, it was time for an Outback food-sampling barbeque.
The kangaroo and emu steaks, and crocodile nuggets were nothing to rave
about, but we went back for more of the delicious camel sausage and
buffalo burgers. We fed the leftovers to acrobatic Kites, birds that
swooped down to catch them in mid-air.

Before we knew it, we were divided into
groups of four and given 4m-long (13 ft) aluminum boats with small
engines, then told to follow the leader up the freshwater side of a
river called Lake Mary. After a quick course in boat-handling, we were
turned loose and on our way. We plowed through the waterlillies and
over by mudflats to see crocodiles as big as our boats sunbathing on the
shore. Although we preferred that they stay onshore where we could see
them, they slid into the water as we approached and swam towards us
before diving down into the muddy waters to join their buddies below.
Onshore, they left impressive 1m-tall (3 ft) Jabiru Storks with dark
heads, black and white bodies, and long, red legs.

As if that was not enough fun, we moved the
boats to the saltwater side of the dam and headed downstream along the
narrow, shallow, and muddy river full of much larger, take-no-prisoners
crocodiles. Everyone got a turn to steer the boat, including one young
lady who almost beached us. Since the tide was going out, we had to cut
things short at dusk and race up the river before it was too shallow.
Back onshore, we watched the sunset and relaxed while large formations
of geese flew overhead, wallabees played hide-and-seek, and cockatoos
made a racket in the trees overhead. We then set out with a torch
(flashlight) to spot bright-yellow crocodile eyes on the river, from the
'safety' of the dam.

The next day we visited the Aboriginal rock
art at Ubirr. The culture is very complex and interesting, but
difficult for others to comprehend and appreciate, even with the
explanations provided at each outdoor site. This is also where Crocodile
Dundee was filmed, so we climbed up to the top for the view of the
Arnhemland Plateau and the wetlands below. We were constantly escorted
by our very own swarm of flies, an infamous part of life in the Outback.
Continuing on, we visited the park headquarters, impressive and modern
museum display of the park's animal life and ecology. We stopped at the
Garden Falls Billabong for our daily bath before heading back for
another big barbeque around the bonfire in the center of our campground.

Day three took us to Barramundi Gorge for a
swim in a lake below the waterfall before hiking to the top and diving
into the deep waterpools feeding the falls. After lunch, we stopped at
the Nourlangie rock art site, dodging the flies, before running back to
the bus and heading back to Darwin. After a much-needed shower, we met
Pauline, a friendly Barbadian woman living in Canada, who recognized
Karin as a fellow West Indian, and told us funny stories about the polar
bears in her neighborhood. She joined us to watch a video of our
adventures in the Outback over our first real pizza in months.

Cairns

The original intention was to dive the
Great Barrier Reef on the way to New Zealand, but we found that an
airpass with stops in five cities to be an economical way to see some of
the country and a tolerable way to cross the vast distances of this
large continent. The scenic flight to Cairns (cans, or canes) took us
over the Tablelands and across to the east coast, where we had a
beautiful view of the Barrier Islands offshore before landing among the
cane fields covering the 6km (3.7 miles) from the mountains to the
shore.

Crossing the tarmac at the airport, we
could not help noticing how similar the surroundings were to St.
Maarten. The weather and vegetation surprised us since it was like being
back home in the Florida Keys or Caribbean Islands, however it is much
cleaner and more orderly. Val and Tom, who we met on the flight from
Bali, were there to welcome us with smiles, as if we were family. They
whisked us up the coast to their home in tranquil Clifton Beach, then
out for a pleasant stroll along the seashore.

We returned home to watch in amazement as
Tom prepared one of the best and spiciest nasi goreng and chicken
satays we have ever tasted. He has always liked Indonesian food,
since he lived there when he was a young man. After dinner, they went
with their daughter, Cathy, back to the airport to pick up Richard,
their son who was just returning from his 8-month round-the-world
journey. It was fun seeing them get reacquainted, while watching his
videos and listening to his adventures.

We took a day-trip into Cairns to check out
the dive operations and pick up our mail. Sean Connolly, an Internet
friend on RTW, sent an out-of-the-ordinary letter, which by tradition
had to be read on the steps outside the GPO. It seems he got more than
he bargained for on the buses and trains which kept crashing in
Pakistan, besides being attacked in the Baluchistan Desert.

The next morning, the weather had calmed
down, so we called the dive shops until finding an extremely reasonable
price on a live-aboard. There were only six hours left before
departure, so we rushed around shopping and running errands, then packed
up while a farewell gourmet feast was prepared at lightning speed.

We boarded the 33m (102 ft), renovated
trawler at 7:00pm, stowed our baggage, selected and set up our dive
gear, then settled into the galley for an orientation briefing, dinner,
and an evening of getting acquainted with the six crew members and
twenty divers on the half-full ship.

Albert intrigued us with stories about his
trip around the world with his wife in 1970. He took a cargo ship to
Europe, then a VW to Nepal, before travelling back to Australia
overland. Just when Marc thought he had gotten away from it all, he was
surprised to meet Mike, who works with the same industrial protective
equipment Marc did, and had recently met some of Marc's workmates at a
seminar in Vancouver. That night, cruising slowly through the rolling
seas, we managed to sleep soundly in our cozy cabin, but many did not
fare well.

After fifteen hours, we were 244km (150
miles) due east of Cairns. Arriving at Holmes Reef in the Coral
Sea, we were struck by the beautiful blue sea and sky, calm
waters, and intense sunlight. There was a small sandy key nearby and
shallow reef all around, with the continental shelf dropping off to
1000m (620 ft). Within ten minutes of anchoring, Marc's seventeen years
of dreaming were fulfilled as we descended 14m (44 ft) to The Amazing
Caves.

It was the best dive of our lives, with
white-tipped reef sharks, clown trigger fish, huge crevalle jacks,
surgeon tangs, and all our favorite butterflies and angelfish observing
us. Most of the time we just hovered at 5m (16 ft), looking into the
colorful and densely populated clusters of coral. When we surfaced, we
found ourselves with deep and very noticeable tan-lines due to the clear
water, which magnified the sunlight. The second dive at The Bridge of
Sighs was more of the same with clownfish nestling in large anemones
and a small turtle roaming around the reef.

The next morning, we drifted along The
Abyss, a spectacular wall that drops into nowhere. The visibility
was well over 40m (125 ft), clear enough to deceive a few of the
experienced divers in the group, drawing them deeper than planned. We
got their attention and they ascended to safe limits. Once our buoyancy
was under control, we stayed at three to four meters (9-13 ft) depth,
where the colors were intense and the reef life most abundant.

Large turtles cruised by, entertaining the
photographers in the school of humans. The highlight of this dive was a
blue-ringed octopus making his rounds from his cave in search of food or
pleasure. The second dive at The Cathedral featured
delicious-looking lobster, tantalizing lionfish, large green Maori
wrasse, and a huge reef-eating Crown-of-Thorns starfish.

The third dive at Nonkie Bommie was
another spectacular event. We circled the 30m-diameter (93 ft),
cylindrical reef in 25m (78 ft) of water, with its top just below the
surface. It was packed with all the reef life we had seen before,
including jacks that swim in circles as if caught in a whirlpool, until
you swim by, then they break formation and follow you around. We
skipped the night dive again, saving our energy for another evening's
smorgasbord and videos of that day's dives.

The third day, after a night of cruising
back towards land, we anchored 50km (31 miles) offshore at The Great
Barrier Reef. Our early morning dives on Flynn Reef and
Thetford Reef had a wide variety of hard corals and some batfish,
but the visibility was comparatively poor. Even after working in the
aquarium industry, Marc no longer feels like setting up his own fish
tank after this wonderful dive experience.

A few hours later, we were back in Cairns
eating gado-gado, an Indonesian salad covered in a piquant peanut
sauce masterfully created by our inspired friends, Tom and Val. They
expressed a great interest in the Internet, so we helped them buy a
28.8Kbps modem, and they took advantage of our expertise since we had
the time to tutor them. In minutes we had the modem installed, used it
to register them for an account with a local Internet service provider,
demonstrated their computer's newfound capabilities by touring the
Internet, then telnetted back to our accounts in Florida to read all of
the email that had piled up.

The following day was spent testing the fax
software so they could communicate with their widely-spread but very
close family. This eventually led to a dedicated line for the computer,
and an addiction to the Internet for Val. Within a year, they became
part-owners of their ISP and started running it!

Linda, a Trinidadian friend who works at
the Florida Institute of Technology,
suggested we contact her relatives when we arrived in Cairns. We
enjoyed a pleasant evening with Mike and Marcia and three of their four
talented children. The West Indian music and creole food were refreshing
reminders of Karin's home, but they also made her homesick. We wish we
had more time to spend with them, but realize that this İonly means we
have a reason to return.

Regrettably, our time in Cairns was up.
Our hosts had treated us like family, and we learned much in a short
time about Australian family values. They are very close and enjoy each
other's company. It is nice to see that some people in the world are
still shocked by the nightly news. We followed Tom's suggestion to sit
on the left side of the plane for a nice view of the islands, reefs, and
coastline.

Sydney

Flying in, we had a great, late afternoon
view of the skyline, the river, the Harbor Bridge, and the Sydney Opera
House. It was overcast and 10°C (50°F). We stayed in the King's
Cross area, famous for its red-light district, but not bad compared to
big cities we have transited, especially now that the government has
cracked down on blatant street exhibitions. One of the first things we
noticed while riding the underground and walking through the city were
the extremes. Some people were very cold and serious while others were
liberal in their behavior and dress styles.

Our main reason for visiting Sydney was to
meet Steve, our friend from Borneo, who Karin had worked with at Florida
Tech. Three months had gone by since he dropped us at the Orlando
Airport, but when we saw him it felt like one or two years. It was at
this moment that we realized how intense Indonesia had been, and how it
had warped our sense of time. We enjoyed a nice meal with his family
and hated saying goodbye again. He made it possible for us to exchange
email and also to open a talk session with our colleagues at Florida
Tech.

Australia is a very popular place for
people under twenty-six to work for a year while travelling, and Sydney
is one of the main cities. One night in our dorm, our male roommate
came home at 3:45am, drunk, homesick, and lonely. He pestered our female
roommate enough to worry us, so we stayed awake until he fell asleep two
hours later.

We enjoyed walking around the city and
visiting the beaches, and find that even though Sydney has a good
collection of international food and culture, we would not want to
return.

Adelaide

Bernd Wechner, a friend
from the Internet, surprised us by showing up at the gate. He posts
collections of travel resource information on the net, with links to
some of them in the RTW Travel Guide. Visit his homepage to learn more
about this over-travelled character.

We staked out an area in the communal
house, where many guests were due in for the final Grand Prix weekend.
The days were full of low-flying and loud US Air Force F-18s which were
part of the show. Some locals were relieved that this was the last Grand
Prix to be held here. We happened to be here for Bernd's birthday party,
so met a few of his interesting friends, some of whom speak Esperanto,
an artificial language.

Adelaide is a small flat city which is laid
out in a grid and surrounded by a park. Biking to the university to
check our email, we found the city to be very nice and liveable. At
dusk, Karin was just starting to get used to biking on the left when she
was challenged by a drunkard who yelled, "I can't see her, she's
got no f*cking headlights!" while weaving in front of her bike.

We stopped in at the archaeological museum,
but did not see much when the fire alarm was mysteriously set off and we
had to evacuate. The weather played tricks on us. One day it was
extremely warm -- the locals called it a heatwave and were concerned
about us walking around in it. The rest of the time it was cold and
windy. We kept warm with many homemade pizzas since that was everyone's
favorite food, when we were not eating jaffles, a uniquely
Australian grilled sandwich of cheese, onions, tomatoes, and garlic.

Walking around the neighborhood, it does
not take long to realize how avid everyone is about gardening.
Flowering plants are popular and the variety of roses are extensive.
Later we came to realize that this is true for most places in Australia.

Marc tracked down the email address of Paul
Hellander, a long lost Internet acquaintance, who by coincidence lives
within walking distance of Bernd's house. He runs a virtual language
translation company, cooks excellent Asian meals, and has also travelled
RTW twice to our surprise. Another thing we didn't realize is that he
is a Lonely Planet author. He wrote the Greek phrase book, and updates
the guides for the Mediterranean and SE Asian regions.

Karin satisfied her computer craving by
building a colorful homepage for his company, South Australian Language
Services.

When his wife, Stella, sees us near the
computer, she teases us about our addiction by saying that we are back
for our therapy. She cooks the most incredible Greek moussakas
and kataifa dessert. They also kept us laughing by acting out
Fawlty Towers skits.

One evening we went to Zorba's Greek
Restaurant for their ritual weekend of dancing to live music. Stella was
in the mood to show off one of her talents by singing a few of her
compositions. We will spare you the details of the delicious and
authentic food, but will say only that we have acquired a taste for
Retsina wine. We look forward to our next visit to Adelaide and hope to
meet Paul and Stella in Greece in mid-1997.

Runaway Bay

John, who we met in Solo and again in Bali,
Indonesia, was there to pick us up from Brisbane Airport. He loaded us
in his van and raced down to Runaway Bay, where he had grown up. We
dropped our bags and headed out for a tour of Surfer's Paradise, a
tourist mecca where the weather, buildings, and plant-life reminded us
of Miami Beach. There is even a town called Miami just to the south.

After watching the surfers cruising the
waves, we bought some prawns and headed home for nasi goreng
udang. John also happens to be a lover of Indonesian food, after
seventeen surfing expeditions to Bali. In fact, he was in a crisis
deciding whether to live and work in Asia again, or go back to the
boring and desolate gold mines of Western Australia. A few months
later, he made the right choice: Bali.

We strolled through the Burleigh Head
National Park and saw our first kookaburra taking food to a large nest
on the side of a tree. The sky was threatening to fall on us, so we
headed to the Carrumbin Sanctuary, which specializes in Australian
wildlife. The bird collection included: jabiru storks, owls, ibis,
parrots, giant pelicans, geese, and the odd-looking, prehistoric
cassowary. The mammal collection featured: wombats, dingos, Tasmanian
devils, and golden, red, tree kangaroos.

There were endangered bilbies, which look
like possums, but have the ears, fur, and hop of rabbits. The koala
bear made a unique honking noise when feeding time came around. We
petted the friendly, but smelly kangaroos before being mesmerized by the
colorful swarm of five hundred or so rainbow lorikeets that arrived on
schedule for the afternoon feeding, as if it was their job.

As soon as we started off on our three-day
camping trip south along the Gold Coast, the rains began. Our first
stop was Byron Bay, famous for its long, sweeping beach, point-break
surfing, and alternative lifestyles. We pitched our tent at the beach
campground, then fell asleep to the sound of the rain tapping on the
canvas.

The next day John surfed Back Beach, but
not for long, as the water was a bit chilly. After visiting many lovely
beaches and driving through rainstorms, we headed into the mountains,
only to run into a dense and very eerie fog. We set up camp at Grafton,
next to a horse and cow pasture, and prepared Thai chicken soup to warm
us for the wet, cold night.

Back in Byron Bay the next day, we came
across a public access terminal, where we introduced John to the wonders
of surfing the Internet. The highlight of our trip was dinner at the
Marrakesh Restaurant in Miami, owned and run by Cici, a very talkative
woman who had many funny stories about life in Australia. After
returning from our camping adventure, we were fortunate to spend some
more time with John's family.

Our time was up, so we returned to the
Brisbane Airport on November 23rd for the three-hour flight across the
Tasman Sea to New Zealand. It looks pretty close on the map, but it is
2278km (1416 miles). Our main reason for coming to Oz was to visit
friends and to scuba dive, both of which we accomplished. Some of our
favorite memories of Australia are experiences we shared with our
friends and their families. All five areas we visited were different,
the accents were Aussie, but the vast distances keep them unique. We
would like to return to Adelaide and areas north of Cairns, and based on
suggestions from others, visit Perth and Melbourne.

If you have the time, we would appreciate any mail you might post
before February 5th to:

BROSIUS, Marc CPO - Poste Restante
Bangkok THAILAND

This may be our last mailstop for awhile
since we are no longer travelling on a schedule. We do not know if we
will find access in the next six months, but send us email and we will
eventually reply. We look forward to hearing from you,